The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-005951, filed Jan. 15, 2008, are expressly incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fluid container holder to and from which a fluid container such as an ink cartridge can be attached and detached and a fluid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet printing apparatus having the fluid container holder.
2. Related Art
In the past, ink jet printing apparatuses (hereinafter, referred to as “printer”) as a fluid ejecting apparatus ejecting a fluid from a fluid ejecting head to a target were widely known. Among such printers, a printer supplying ink from an ink cartridge (fluid container) containing ink (fluid) to a print head (fluid ejecting head) is provided with a cartridge holder (fluid container holder) which the ink cartridge can be attached to and detached from (for example, see JP-A-2007-137072).
That is, in the cartridge holder described in JP-A-2007-137072, an ink supply needle (fluid supply member) capable of being inserted into and pulled out of an ink supply hole (fluid supply hole) of the ink cartridge and an air introduction member (operating fluid supply member) capable of coming in close contact with a pressurized air introduction hole (container flow hole) of the ink cartridge are disposed parallel to each other in a drawing-out direction of the ink cartridge. By allowing the ink cartridge to move in an attachment direction, the ink supply needle is inserted into the ink supply hole and an end of the air introduction member comes in close contact with the pressurized air introduction hole, whereby the ink cartridge is attached to a predetermined attachment position. By allowing the ink cartridge to move from the attachment position in the drawing-out direction, the ink supply needle is taken out of the ink supply hole and the end of the air introduction member is separated from the pressurized air introduction hole, whereby the ink cartridge is detached from the cartridge holder.
However, in the final step of attaching the ink cartridge to the cartridge holder and in the first step of detaching the ink cartridge from the cartridge holder, a pressing force is applied to the end of the air introduction member in the cartridge holder from the ink cartridge moving in the attachment direction. Accordingly, in the cartridge holder of the printer described in JP-A-2007-137072, the end portion of the air introduction member includes a cylindrical supporting tube, a cylindrical sliding member slidably disposed on the supporting tube, and a coil spring always urging the sliding member to the end of the air introduction member.
In the final step of attaching the ink cartridge to the cartridge holder and in the first step of detaching the ink cartridge from the cartridge holder, when the pressing force from the ink cartridge is applied, the sliding member backwardly move against the urging force of the coil spring with the pressing force applied from the ink cartridge. By urging the backwardly-moved sliding member to an end of the air introduction member with the urging force of the coil spring, an end opening of the sliding member which is the end of the air introduction member is brought into close contact with the pressurized air introduction hole of the ink cartridge.
However, in the above-mentioned configuration of the air introduction member in the cartridge holder, since it is necessary to assemble plural members (supporting tube, sliding member, and coil spring), the assembly efficiency of the cartridge holder deteriorates. In addition, since the number of members increases, it is difficult to reduce the manufacturing cost.